The bad news, such as it is, is that as a nation we have a long way to go. Ideally, all babies would be exclusively breastfed until at least 6 months of age, and we’re far from that ideal.

The percentage of exclusively breastfed babies in the 2012 report card does come close to the CDC’s Healthy People 2010 goals: 40% of babies exclusively breastfed at 3 months, and 17% at 6 months. But still…that means the majority of American babies aren’t enjoying breastfeeding’s many benefits.

The CDC has set more ambitious and hopefully achievable breastfeeding goals in Healthy People 2020:

2020 Target:

1) Ever breastfed: 81.9% (2012 report card: 76.9%)

2) Any breastfeeding:

At 6 months: 60.6% (2012: 47.2%)

At 1 year: 34.1% (2012: 25.5%)

3) Exclusive breastfeeding:

Through 3 months: 46.2% (2012: 36%)

Through 6 months: 25.5% (2012: 16.6%)

Next we’ll look at state-by-state breastfeeding data. Not surprisingly, there are some significant differences…